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The human race has survived thus far due to one simple truth; we had what we needed when we needed it. The Neanderthal would have had no use for a microwave to cook his mammoth steak, just as the medieval man would have overlooked an AK47 for his trusty spear. Within the last century alone we have had to evolve and adapt to the motorcar, the television, the Lycra legging and the Atomic bomb. Our own generation has grappled with the mobile phone, the personal computer, the iPod, the iPad and the ‘I’ve been tagged in a compromising Facebook picture’. So why are we, in the dawning of the digital age, still sending our foot soldiers out armed with abacuses?
As the Irish summer breezed in and out of lives fleetingly, thousands of our nation’s youth knuckled down in cavernous school halls, regurgitating what they could recall of their Leaving Cert curriculum. Since its inception in 1924, the state exam has endeavoured to equip the school leaver for the world of work and further study. And perhaps up until the Millennium it had delivered in its brief, a broad overview of academia, the three R’s and practical vocations on which to specialise at the student’s desire and ability. But the playing field has been well and truly levelled in Irish schools by the advent of technology. And no matter whether you intend to operate on kidneys or operate a digger in your future career, one thing is certain; you’ll need to digitize it.
In 2007 The Department of Education responded to the growing demand and installed a Technology Module in the secondary system. But the course is optional and sparsely provided, rendering it as effective as a Commodore 64 in a Mac Pro world. Computer technology demands its place with the core mandatory subjects; it’s as vital to the next generation of employees as Math and English. If any student leaves the system not knowing their cloud computing from their algorithms, we have failed them.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Brian Solis/Flickr
And the kids are crying out for it, they want to learn about the world happening around them. They look up to technological innovators like Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, and for the first time in a long time it’s cool to be smart. Teenagers already choose to study this world in their spare time through social media and interactive computer games, practically communicating and evolving on a solely digital level. So why are we stunting their growth when it comes to formal education?
If you get the foundations of a house right, the walls will support the roof. And that’s how we need to build a competent workforce to compete with digital giants America and Asia. Leading the charge is a small school of just 58 pupils and three teachers in Kilkenny, who have been awarded the first Microsoft Innovation School title in Ireland. Scoil Mhichil Naofa in Galmoy are integrating laptops and iPads in the everyday routine of kids as young as five, making technology as instinctive as their times tables.
There’s no avoiding the future, especially when it’s already here. Give the kid a formula and he will follow it. But teach him how to code and he will build the next level.
This article originally appeared in Newstalk Magazine for iPad in July, for more details go here.
